I have heard of the term “adult coloring book” for a while now, but I never went out and bought any books. However, once I took a peek into what this was, I was intrigued, and definitely did want to try it out somehow. I remember as a child that I loved to color in those coloring books my parents bought me, or whenever they handed us something to color in school. It was always a soothing activity, and I often found myself focused on completing the picture that I couldn’t be bothered with other stuff at that moment. Of course, those kinds of colorings would be too easy and childish for the adult me, so naturally I would need something more complex, which is where the adult coloring books come in. But since I prefer everything digital nowadays, there wasn’t much variety for me on the App Store. Fortunately, Pixite, the guys behind other great photography apps like Fragment and Tangent, told me of their own adult coloring book app, and I knew I had to get my hands on it. Luckily enough, this is the app to get if you have been wanting a digital adult coloring experience.

The interface of Pigment is as beautiful as the coloring designs themselves. Just like their other apps, Pixite has gone above and beyond to provide users with a simple and clean user interface that is easy and intuitive to use. There is plenty of whitespace, which is great for an app like this, and everything is neatly organized into tabs and design books. Choosing colors, changing tools, and adjusting the size are done through selections and sliders, and the coloring process itself is a great way to pass the time. Pixite has done a fantastic job of creating an adult coloring book experience that is friendly enough for anyone.

When you’re in the app, there are two sections available: Library and My Work. By default, there are already some line drawings in the My Work section that serve as demos, but you can complete it yourself. It’s a nice way to showcase how the designs can morph into something colorful and stunning by the end. But if you want to start fresh, just browse the Library, where it will have about 20 different books for you to choose from. These designs range from animals to mandalas to winter to abstract patterns and many more. When you find a category that interests you, just tap on it to view the available designs, pick one, and it will download to your device, ready for you to start coloring. Any design you pick will become available for quick access in the My Work section, and you can start fresh on any design you worked on by tapping on the “reset” button (your previous version will still be saved in My Work).

During the coloring process, users have a rather flexible set of tools available for use. To choose your tool, tap on the button at the bottom to bring up the color opacity and size sliders, then tap on the tool button. There are several different tools available: pencil, marker, brush, paint bucket, airbrush, and pen. Additionally, you can go for a linear or radial gradient brush to give your coloring a unique look. Pigment comes complete with support for 3D Touch and Apple Pencil, so you can color as you would with real paper. And if you don’t have an iPhone 6s or 6s Plus or an iPad Pro with Apple Pencil, don’t worry — you can still use any third-party stylus or just your finger as well.

As far as colors go, Pigment decided to go with something a bit different from just a standard color palette. Instead, if you tap on the color button (with two rows of dots on the main coloring screen), you’ll get several different color themes, which are essentially colors that the developers believe go well together. While you can stick with one color theme, you can also mix-and-match hues to your liking, though this process involves a bit of going back and forth if you are constantly switching colors. I wish that Pigment had an option for a color picker, so you can just pick a color that you’ve already used in the drawing and then it can be used again. It’s definitely something that should be considered for a future update. Still, any color you pick can be adjusted with a slider as well, so there is a lot of customization here.

A useful feature of Pigment is the ability to select a section of the line drawing, which allows you to fill only that part with color. In short, it’s a cheat for staying within the lines if you’re a sloppy colorer. If this isn’t used, then you are free to color anything on the design as you wish. If mistakes are made, you can use the undo and redo buttons found at the top. You can also zoom in and out of a design or even rotate it by pinching with your fingers. If you’re bored with a design but are not finished, just go back to the library and pick another one — your current one is saved automatically in My Work. When you’re done with a design, you can tap on the share button in the top right corner to show off your work with others through social networks, open it in another app, or just save it to your device.

Since Pigment is a free app, there will be a watermark on your images when you save or share them. However, there are several different options for an in-app purchase of a premium subscription. What the premium subscription gets you is removal of the watermark, access to all designs of the Pigment Library (growing every day), and the option of saving high resolution images that are ideal for printing. If you want to be committed to Pigment for your adult coloring book needs, then a premium subscription is something that is worth looking into. It’s available in weekly, monthly, or yearly flavors.

As a newbie to the adult coloring book world, I’m enjoying Pigment a lot so far. The app itself is easy to navigate, the designs are beautiful and fun to color, and the tools are rather extensive, giving us a lot of different methods and options for completing a design. I just wish that there was a faster way to pick colors you’ve already used in a drawing, and the zooming in and out can feel a bit laggy, so hopefully that can be optimized in an update. Still, this is a very polished app that will be a great way to pass the time. For best results, I recommend having a stylus of some kind handy.